Strutt was educated at King Edward VI Grammar school, Chelmsford (where there is a house named after him), and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to the engraver William Wynne Ryland.

[2] For this, the first work of its kind published in England, he drew and engraved from ancient manuscripts representations of kings, costumes, armour, seals, and other objects of interest.

On her death in September 1778 he wrote an elegiac poem in her memory, published anonymously in 1779; for the next seven years he then devoted his attention to painting, and exhibited nine pictures, mostly classical subjects, at the Royal Academy.

[4] In 1790, his health having failed, and having fallen into debt through the dishonesty of a relative, Strutt went to live at Bacon's Farm, Bramfield, Hertfordshire, where he carried on his work as an engraver, and devoted his spare time to the establishment of a Sunday and evening school.

At Bramfield he executed several engravings of exceptional merit, including thirteen after designs by Thomas Stothard, published in John Bradford's edition of the Pilgrim's Progress (London, 8vo, 1792).

[5] He also gathered the materials for more than one work of fiction (published posthumously), and wrote a satirical romance relating to the French revolution, which exists in manuscript.

After his death the publisher John Murray I passed the incomplete manuscript to Walter Scott, who added a final chapter, bringing the narrative to a somewhat premature and inartistic conclusion.

Scott admits in the general preface to the later editions of Waverley that his association with Strutt's romance largely suggested to him the publication of his own work.

Strutt died on 16 October 1802 at his house in Charles Street, Hatton Garden, and was buried in St. Andrew's churchyard, Holborn.